


you unreeling

by fated_addiction



Series: check one [1]
Category: K-pop, Real Person Fiction, Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 23:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13774533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fated_addiction/pseuds/fated_addiction
Summary: "i'm going to make them talk to each other."or, irene, wendy, and what's underneath other people's conversations about love.





	you unreeling

-

 

 

 

"i'm going to make them talk to each other."

next to her, wendy rolls her eyes. she tosses her magazine to the side. "they won't do it."

"still." irene sighs. her eyes dart to seulgi staring at her phone. there's smile; it disappears quickly. "it's spilling into other things," she mutters.

"hypocrite."

"sorry?" irene blinks. she's surprised. wendy's picked up another magazine. 

"nothing," she replies lazily. her fingers pull back a magazine page quickly. it snaps and irene tenses. "i just think that we have no room to judge," wendy continues. the salon is too empty to have this kind of conversation.

"i don't understand."

wendy sighs. her expression changes into something irene recognizes. wendy is nothing but an open book: clear, sharp, and way too much. irene shies away from looking at her directly. that's her problem alone.

"you're a terrible liar, unnie," wendy says quietly, and irene feels guilty.

the truth? no one likes to talk about their own feelings, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

seulgi corners her in the bathroom.

"can we talk?"

she's the softest out of all of them. irene fixes her face into something stern. but kind - she does this a lot. part of the prerequisite of a leader: how quickly you set yourself aside for everyone else.

"sure," she manages. she sinks against the wall and watches seulgi sit on the edge of the tub. "what's wrong?"

"i don't know."

irene barks a laugh. "yah, you're selling yourself short -"

"it's not that," seulgi recovers quickly. "i mean -" she groans, then muffles the sound into her hands. her eyes squeeze shut. "i know why i'm upset. it's like the words are right _there_ and i just... why should i say these things lightly? i don't want to be careless. i feel like she wants me to be careless and irresponsible and i just... _that's_ not me."

the words roll out of seulgi's mouth. irene stares. feels like she's look at herself in the mirror. then nearly kicks herself for thinking that too. still, her body moves without apologies. she scoots to seulgi's spot. softens her face. grabs her hands.

"you know i'm bad at this," irene murmurs.

seulgi chokes a laugh.

"i am. i can't even -" her voice tapers off. she watches seulgi sigh. this isn't about you, irene scolds herself. "look," she says gently. "you're only going to have to talk to her every way you look at it."

the younger girl sighs. she curls her fingers into her hair. "it's not that easy," she mutters. "sooyoung makes it damn near impossible to talk to her."

"she gets under your skin."

"yeah." seulgi looks up. her mouth twists. "something like that."

"because she knows that you know _exactly_ how you feel." the words sort of stumble out. irene grimaces. mostly, it's because she's caught herself. "look," she starts. carefully, if anything. "i'm not going to pretend to know the answers. because i don't. in fact, if it were up to me... i'd really just find the answer, figure it out, and be done with all these -"

"feelings?" seulgi teases.

"something like that. just... remember that she gets under your skin because she knows that you know she can. and because you let her. because she's probably just as equally not ready as you are. she'll never tell you that because she's -"

"sooyoung," seulgi finishes dryly. just as irene thinks _seungwan_.

they stare at each other. her mouth twists. the bathroom gets quiet. irene slides forward, presses her palms into her knees. her mouth opens, then closes. seulgi laughs at her, the corners of her mouth wrinkling with understanding.

"you're a mess, unnie," she says.

 

 

 

 

 

later, she drags herself into wendy's bed.

not because of anything in particular. it's really because it's a habit; wendy crawls into hers, irene crawls back into _hers_ , and the joke between the five of them is that they really just need their own room. it's a routine.

"you okay?"

wendy blinks up at her sleepily. irene pauses, in the middle of shifting the blankets. her legs are half inside already.

"mmm," she manages. she pushes wendy's arm over. "go back to sleep," she scolds.

"you're too noisy."

irene feels her face flush. she says nothing though. settles on the edge of wendy's pillow; there are two, but wendy spreads them over the bed. she rolls a lot in her sleep. but wendy finds her hand still, just as she settles into the covers next to her. her fingers twists around her wrist. 

"i didn't mean to be too noisy," irene whispers.

"sooyoungie is mad that you talked to seulgi."

"seulgi came to me first," she protests weakly. her voice feels scratchy. she squeezes her eyes shut and shifts closer in the bed. "and sooyoung is always mad when seulgi talks to someone else."

"true," wendy agrees. "but she's mad."

irene wants to roll her eyes. she keeps that to herself. instead, she shifts closer. her fingers find wendy's face out of habit and slide over her forehead, down the line of her jaw, and then again, tapping her nose.

"she'll tell me soon, i'm sure."

wendy snorts. "probably."

and then irene can't help it. like everything else that comes with being around wendy. "you're not mad, are you?"

"should i be?"

"stop _it_."

wendy laughs. it's husky. sleepily pressing against the back of her throat. "i'm not," she says. it feels like an admission. it's not; irene knows the difference between an admission and a _wendy_ admission. still, it makes her think. crawls underneath her skin. and pulls. "you have this habit of coming to me first," wendy adds. "about these things."

she's not wrong. irene is very particular about her words. not just about how she says them, but to who. irene would never not say anything to wendy. because it feels like a secret. she can't keep secrets.

"you know me way too well."

wendy's eyes are open. she stares at irene. sleep is washing away slowly. the room is still dark, shifted by a small nightlight that wendy keeps in the corner of the room. by a desk. the bed is suddenly a lot warmer than before too. irene isn't panicking, but her heart is starting to beat a little faster. the problem? she's already resigned herself to this feeling.

"i don't," wendy says honestly. her voice sharpens. "i just know..."

don't say it, irene thinks. her mouth starts to dry. don't say it. don't say it. don't _say it_.

wendy's still smiling though. "breathe," she says.

"i am."

"uh-huh." 

irene watches wendy turn. her back faces her and she settles back into the blankets, leaving a pocket of warmth for irene in the bed. it's a long time before irene actually falls asleep though. staring at wendy's back, waiting until her breathing starts to even out and the pressure in her shoulders start to relax. this? this feels like guilt again. it's a little different when you both know you're in love.

 

 

 

 

 

sometimes it's not about the confession.


End file.
